Donut on Tour - Reflections on eSK

Day 783, 10:00 • Published in South Korea India • by Donut Stores

So I've been in eSouth Korea for about ten days now and really, I couldn't have picked a more interesting time to arrive. I point out that while I've done research and talked to some people the information I'm about to share is from my outsider's perspective, and while I know the broadstrokes are accurate I might be off on some of the more specific details. I hope not; I've enjoyed my time here and hope to represent my experience of eSK well.

For those of you that don't know eSK has been a theocracy for some time now, which means that they believe their politics to be governed by divinity/God(s). The theocracy of eSK has little to do with RL SK, which is a liberal democracy and where, from what I've read, much of the population isn't religious, and what religion there is tends to be Christian or Buddhist. Freedom of religion is in fact guarenteed in RL South Korea's constitution, and there is no officially recognised state religion.

But that's RL SK. eSK, like I said, functions under a theocracy. And honestly the first thing that stuck me about life in this particularly theocracy were the high wages (in local currency) and high taxes to match. 50% of my wages went in income tax (I worked in manuf. but this level of taxation held much of the way across the board). There were three main political parties, two theocratic and one democratic, and despite a citizen count only in the 300s a massive amount of debate and conversation any time anyone released an article, and I was ranked about 56th in the country, just about the same as where I was in eIreland, which should tell you a lot about the skew of the experience levels of those who reside in eSK (as a point of reference I'm level 19, and bordering 1900 exp now). I learned the reason for the high taxation was because theocrats were subsidized by the state and given moving tickets, weapons etc. as needed, which meant the state needed a lot of funding. I'll be honest I forgot to check if there was this kind of subsidisation for those who didn't subscribe to the theocratic ideal, I suspect there wasn't given the height of the emotions that seem to run through some of the democratic citizens.

For the most part I spent my time here observing the media, though I did ask a few questions here and there of different people, one former e-Irelander in particular got a bit of a grilling as to how eRepublik eSK theocracy related to the real world, and they pointed me at a wiki article that explained eSK's theocracy to me far better than I was able to glean for myself (Theocracy - the article's a bit out of date but it's pretty well explained, I think). I was intrigued to learn that the whole movement started in eItaly and has taken in eSwitzerland along the way, and even more interested in the clear ideological divide that occurs here. It seems, to me as an outsider at least, that people are very much Theocrat or Democrat, with a fair amount of scorn fired between, though some of it seems good-natured enough (and admittedly, some of it really doesn't). To be honest my experiences of both sides of the ideological divide were positive; I found people welcoming and informative, and no-one really tried to force their point of view on me despite the clear tension that existed at times in the media articles.

And then, a few days ago, I found a big surprise waiting for me when I logged on - the theocrats were moving out of eSK, albeit in stages, and they'd set about a slow withdrawal as they established a theocratic base in eSpain. The tax rates were adjusted, and I now pay 20%, rather than 50%. The news in eSK these days concerns the move, primarily, with leaders of the theocratic side advising how they want it to occur, and members of the democrats planning how to establish a government etc. following the large scale exodus (as an indication - my citizen rank of 56 is now 36, just in a couple of days). For the democratic side eSK itself seemed to be of primary importance, where the theocrats adhered to the orders of the theocratic leadership above that of any local goverment (though admittedly in this case those two were one and the same. When they move to eSpain this may be clearer, as I think they'll follow Theocratic orders above any eSpain may issue, I re-iterate again that I might be getting fine details like this wrong). I was asked by one very nice citizen, who himself had moved to eSK to help with this transition, to stay around and help but my primary commitment is of course to Ireland and the wonderful IDF, so that isn't going to be possible. I also feel I've learned more or less all I can in a short trip here though I hope to stay in contact with the people I've met here, both the theocrats on their journey to europe and the democrats working to establish a new leadership in eSK, to see how it all pans out and to fill any gaps in my knowledge/rectify any mistakes in the article above, by learning more about what's going on with them.

All of which means, of course, that it's time to move on. I was thinking eUK next but I think now might not be a prime time to get hold of members of their administration with questions, given they have more pressing matters on their minds. Instead I think it'll be eIndia next for me - another country that saw an Irish exodus recently, and another one I'd like to understand better.

With love to those back home and those I'm about to leave behind,
Donut